US Marines in Japan are pushing the F-35 to the limit

US Marine aviators with the F-35B on its first-ever overseas
deployment in Japan are training to push the Joint Strike Fighter
to its limits while tensions in the Western Pacific reach their
highest levels since World War II.

A report from Defense News revealed that
the Marines are training on a variety of techniques that will
enable them to fight, refuel, and reload from virtually anywhere.

In the event of war, when the US can count on a competent
adversary to target its bases with a huge barrage of
missiles, the Marines in Japan train for scenarios where they may
have little time and space to operate out of.

The two techniques that will allow the Marines to bring the fight
back to the enemy even with airstrips and supply lines devastated
by missile fire are called "hot loading" and "aviation-delivered
ground refueling."

Hot loading simply means that when an F-35 lands, without even
turning the engines off, Marines can reload the bomb bays and the
F-35 can turn around to fight again. The process saves time and
wear and tear on the jet, according to Defense News.

The second techinque, as discussed in the Marine Corps new operating concept, allows
F-35s to refuel from just about anywhere. Essentially, instead of
going to a designated base that can be far from the front lines
that also serves as a big bullseye to an adversary, planes
can land on rough patches of land and lay pipe fuel to F-35s
which can then return to combat.

The concept of fighting out from austere locations is one of the
several ways the US military is addressing the "missile gap," or China and Russia's
increasing ability to outrange US systems with extremely long
range munitions. Defense News also reports that the USS Wasp, a
small aircraft carrier that can support about a dozen F-35s, will
deploy to the Pacific.